Professor's use of gender pronouns not protected by First Amendment

A recent decision from the Southern District of Ohio illustrates the intersection of gender expression and free speech in public workplaces.

Facts

Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University, is an evangelical Christian who doesn't believe an individual's gender can be changed after conception. In 2016, the university told him he must refer to students using their preferred pronouns, and any professor who refused to use a student's preferred pronouns would be subject to discipline.

Two years later, Meriwether was teaching a political philosophy course in which he responded to a student's question by saying, "Yes, sir." Following class, the student—who chose to remain anonymous during litigation under the name Jane Doe—told the professor she was transgender and asked him to refer to her using feminine pronouns. He said he was unsure he could do that.

Ultimately, the acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences met with Meriwether and advised him to "begin referring to all students by their last names only and to eliminate all sex-based references from his expression." Meriwether chose to apply this standard to Doe only and referred to her exclusively by her last name. A few weeks later, the dean informed him Doe wasn't satisfied with his choice to refer only to her by last name while continuing to use gender titles and pronouns for other students. She told the dean she may file a Title IX action.